A seductive, stormy look at adultery

“Everything actually has to happen, doesn’t it? You think in your mind things can happen without happening, but in the end, they always have to actually happen.”

Even if national divorce statistics were less bleak than they are, the idiomatic insights of “Orange Flower Water” at the Lyric Theatre would resonate. Craig Wright’s artfully graphic study of small-town adultery receives a vivid, meta-theatrical staging by director Obren Milanovic and a wholly invested cast.

“Orange Flower Water” unfolds in one rumpled act as it follows the fallout from an extramarital affair. Wright, as gifted a scribe as any now before the public, infuses his narrative with raw realism and wry lyricism.

Milanovic moves them synoptically around designer Sean Meyer’s black box set, angling the pivotal bed into prominence, drawing side curtains to reveal clotheslines strewn with Jessica Champagne’s costumes.

As illicit lovers Beth and David, feverish Sierra Fisk and laconic Chris Smith have an arresting chemistry that sharply contrasts with their spouses. James Lemire plays cuckolded Brad as a gonzo alpha male whose comic crudity covers acutely painful depths. Kristin Chiles gives controlling Cathy a detailed arc, devastating when her facade finally cracks during the climactic scene with David.

Such fearless, affecting work makes quibbles -- the actors’ youthfulness, a few overly ornate moments -- seem pedantic. Prudes and new divorcees should proceed cautiously, but this urgent “Water” withstands memories of the rapt 2006 Little Victory edition to pack its own incisive punch.

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‘Orange Flower Water’

Where: Lyric Theatre, 520 N. La Brea Ave., L.A.

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays

Ends: April 5

Price: $20

Contact: (323) 939-9220

Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes